From Hero to Goat

One of things that makes baseball so interesting is that it's amazing how much can change from one day to the next. Yesterday morning Marcus Thames was the hero, today he's largely thought of as the goat. Who knows, by tomorrow he could be the hero again.

Steve's got a good rundown on last night's tough loss so I'll just add a few thoughts...

Not to completely exculpate Thames' fielding blunder, but it was a sloppy defensive game on both sides with the wet and windy weather likely playing a role. What was most disconcerting was the bullpen meltdown again. Can anyone be trusted right now? Granted, errors played a big role in the collapse, but a pitcher still has to pitch in spite of the errors, and Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera did little last night to close the floodgates (while Josh Beckett and Jonathan Papelbon also struggled to overcome teammates' errors).

The decision to send down Greg Golson, a capable defensive oufielder, proved to be costly and really should never have been made. The rationale was that they needed another reliever, but it left the bench with just one player last night - Ramiro Pena. With two regulars unavailable (Jorge Posada, Nick Swisher) and the team's workhorse on the mound, it made little sense to cut the bench depth in favor of another arm. Golson could have come in handy defensively in the late innings.

Hopefully Nick Swisher can return to the lineup today, but that still leaves the Yankees with a tough decision in left field. Randy Winn can field and run but can't hit, while Marcus Thames has hit well but is a clear liability in the field. Neither are options a team should want out there regularly.

Thames will likely continue to see time at DH, but he may feel some heat from lefty Juan Miranda, who had a nice game yesterday with a homerun and almost came up with the game tying RBI if not for a nice snag by Jonathan Papelbon (out of 100 chances, I'm not sure
Papelbon makes that play 50% of the time - all the ball needed to do was
get by him for Cano to score). Miranda has played well in the minors and improved modestly each year as he's risen through the levels, but he's not played quite well enough to force the Yankees into finding a spot for him. It's a shame, because on most teams he would probably have been given more of a chance by now. With Nick Johnson out for weeks, this could be Miranda's big chance.

Francisco Cervelli continues to impress. The overall sample is still small, but based on his minor league numbers, it would have been near impossible to predict that Cervelli would have this kind of overall impact and ever bat 6th in this Yankees lineup as he has the past two games. He has 15 RBI already, one more than Jorge Posada and in 24 less at bats. His approach seems simple, call a good game and just try to put the bat on ball when at the plate. It's working so far.

Lastly, speaking of simple approaches, there's Brett Gardner. Watching Gardner might be like watching players during the deadball era, where contact, precision, and speed was the name of the game, over power. Gardner is simply trying to hit 'em where the ain't, slicing the ball through gaps or poking it over the infield. He's also making pitchers work, seeing more pitches per at bat than anyone else on this team. With his speed, getting on base however possible is key, and though he's not currently batting leadoff, there are few players in baseball who are be better suited to batting leadoff right now.